Reading Notes W8: Emily Dickinson, Part A

The context section within The Norton Anthology of World Literature Volume E reveals much about the life and times of Emily Dickinson. Dickinson was a shut in for the majority of her life, confining herself to living quarters to write. The section describes her as an individual "conflicted and ambivalent about Christian orthodoxy even as a child, she resisted the Puritan attitudes that surrounded her especially at school" (483).  Because of Dickinson's questioning, it led her to become isolated from an early age, which then persisted for the rest of her life. During her life she barely published any poems, with her family then discovering thousands of poems after her death that we're both strange and brilliant. She's known for her distinct style of poetry writing; incorporating dashes, capitalization and other idiosyncrasies. Dickinson was also against publishing her own work or any one else because of several factors: advice from fellow writer, Thomas Wentworth Higginson (who "led her to believe that the world would not appreciate the unconventional and demanding poems") and because of her own belief of being misinterpreted. Upon her death and publishing her work she's been met with critical acclaim, with many considering her one of best poets in America's history. Her poems often covered themes of "nature, death, love, and faith". Of the many poems that I've read I will specifically write notes about "1593".

• Poem 1593 appears to be about an incoming storm and the views of human/natures interaction with it's power: "Those looked that lived that Day--"
• Simile: "There came a Wind like a Bugle--/It quivered through the Grass" (1-2, 490). I was unfamiliar with meaning of the word "bugle" and discovered it's a brass instrument used in the military as a signal. Dickinson indicates the strong wind of a storm as the warning like the bugle. 
• The imagery is evocative in it's description of nature. Dickinson creates almost smooth chaos though her choice of words (chaos of the storm combined with smooth metaphor/simile). "That very instant passed--/On a strange Mob of panting Trees/And Fences fled away/And Rivers where the Houses ran" (490), Heavy storms are both chaotic in their destruction yet smooth and expected in nature. They are a natural element of nature. This 
• The only section that has an exclamation point is the very end: "How much can come/And much can go,/And yet abide the World" (490). This feels like the acknowledgement of the world continuing, even after such a storm can shock an area or community. Regardless of the destruction, nature carries on. 

Dickinson, Emily. "1593." The Norton Anthology of World Literature Volume E. 483-490.